Information transmission method, network device, and terminal device

ABSTRACT

An information transmission method, a terminal device and a network device are provided. The method is applied to a communication system including a network device and a terminal device, and a frequency-domain resource on a carrier used by the communication system is a contention based frequency-domain resource. The method including: the network device determining an available first time-frequency resource and sending first information to the terminal device through the first time-frequency resource; the terminal device receiving first information from the network device through a first time-frequency resource, where the first time-frequency resource is a time-frequency resource in a first downlink transmission burst; and the terminal device determining, according to the first information, that the first time-frequency resource is a downlink time-frequency resource.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of International Patent ApplicationNo. PCT/CN2017/118399 filed on Dec. 25, 2017, the disclosure of which ishereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

In a Licensed-Assisted Access using Long Term Evolution (LAA-LTE)system, service is provided for a terminal device by using a carrier ona licensed spectrum as a primary carrier and a carrier on an unlicensedspectrum as a secondary carrier. A communication device follows a“Listen Before Talk (LBT)” principle on an unlicensed spectrum, namelythe communication device, before sending a signal in a channel of theunlicensed spectrum, needs to monitor the channel at first. Thecommunication device may send the signal only when a channel monitoringresult is that the channel is idle, and if the channel monitoring resultof the communication device for the channel of the unlicensed spectrumis that the channel is busy, the communication device may not send thesignal.

In the LAA-LTE system, transmission of a network device isopportunistic, data may be transmitted only when LBT succeeds and nodata may be transmitted when LBT fails. Therefore, a terminal device ina cell served by the network device needs to know when the networkdevice starts downlink transmission and stops downlink transmission, soas to implement correct data communication between the terminal deviceand the network device.

In the LAA-LTE system, there are Cell-specific Reference Signals (CRS)in each subframe sent by a network device. A terminal device may detectwhether there is a CRS in a present subframe to judge whether there isdownlink transmission of a network device in the subframe, therebyimplementing correct data communication with the network device.

However, when a New Radio (NR) technology is applied to an unlicensedspectrum, there is no CRS in an NR system. Under such a circumstance,how a terminal device determines a time-frequency resource used fordownlink transmission of a network device to implement correct datacommunication with the network device is a problem urgent to be solved.

SUMMARY

The embodiments of the disclosure provide an information transmissionmethod, a network device and a terminal device, which may enable theterminal device to recognize a time-frequency resource for downlinktransmission of the network device.

A first aspect provides an information transmission method, which may beapplied to a communication system including a network device and aterminal device, a frequency-domain resource on a carrier used by thecommunication system being a contention based frequency-domain resource,the method including the following operations. The terminal devicereceives first information from the network device through a firsttime-frequency resource, the first time-frequency resource being atime-frequency resource in a first downlink transmission burst. Theterminal device determines, according to the first information, that thefirst time-frequency resource is a downlink time-frequency resource.

A second aspect provides an information transmission method, which maybe applied to a communication system including a network device and aterminal device, a frequency-domain resource on a carrier used by thecommunication system being a contention based frequency-domain resource.The method includes the following operations. The network devicedetermines an available first time-frequency resource, the firsttime-frequency resource being a time-frequency resource in a firstdownlink transmission burst. The network device sends first informationto the terminal device through the first time-frequency resource, thefirst information being used by the terminal device to determine thatthe first time-frequency resource is a downlink time-frequency resource.

A third aspect provides a terminal device, which includes an inputinterface, a processor and a memory for storing instruction executableby the processor, the input interface, the processor and the memorybeing connected through a bus system. The processor is configured toexecute the instructions stored in the memory to execute the method inthe first aspect or any possible implementation mode of the firstaspect.

A fourth aspect provides a network device, which includes an outputinterface, a processor and a memory for storing instruction executableby the processor, the output interface, the processor and the memorybeing connected through a bus system. The processor is configured toexecute the instructions stored in the memory to execute the method inthe second aspect or any possible implementation mode of the secondaspect.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system according to anembodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a schematic flowchart of an information transmission methodaccording to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of an example of an informationtransmission method according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of an implementation mode of transmittingindication information by beamforming in two directions.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of another implementation mode oftransmitting indication information by beamforming in two directions.

FIG. 6 is a schematic flowchart of an information transmission methodaccording to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 7 is a schematic block diagram of a terminal device according to anembodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a schematic block diagram of a network device according to anembodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 9 is a schematic block diagram of a terminal device according toanother embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 10 is a schematic block diagram of a network device according toanother embodiment of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The technical solutions in the disclosure will be described below incombination with the drawings.

Terms “part”, “module”, “system” and the like used in the specificationare adopted to represent a computer related entity, hardware, firmware,hardware and software combination, software or software in execution.For example, a part may be, but not limited to, a process running on aprocessor, the processor, an object, an executable file, an executionthread, a program and/or a computer. The drawings show that both anapplication running in a computing device and the computing device maybe parts. One or more parts may reside in a process or an executionthread, and the parts may be located on a computer and/or distributedbetween two or more computers. In addition, these parts may be executedfrom various computer-readable media with various data structures storedthereon. The “parts” may communicate through local or remote processesaccording to, for example, signals with one or more data groups (forexample, data from two parts interacting with another part of a localsystem, a distributed system or a network, for example, the Internetinteracting with another system through signals).

It is to be understood that the embodiments of the disclosure may beapplied to various communication systems, for example, a Global Systemof Mobile communication (GSM), a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)system, a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) system, aGeneral Packet Radio Service (GPRS), an LTE system, an Advanced LongTerm Evolution (LTE-A) system, an NR system, an evolved system of the NRsystem such as an NR-based access to unlicensed spectrum (NR-U) system,a Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS), a Wireless LocalArea Network (WLAN) and a Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) or next-generationcommunication system.

Generally speaking, connections supported by a conventionalcommunication system are usually limited in number and also easy toimplement. However, along with the development of communicationtechnologies, a mobile communication system will not only supportconventional communication but also support, for example, Device toDevice (D2D) communication, Machine to Machine (M2M) communication,Machine Type Communication (MTC) and Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V)communication.

A communication system in the embodiments of the disclosure may beapplied to a Carrier Aggregation (CA) scenario, may also be applied to aDual Connectivity (DC) scenario and may further be applied to aStandalone (SA) network deployment scenario.

When the communication system in the embodiments of the disclosure isapplied to an unlicensed spectrum and a network deployment scenario isCA, the CA network deployment scenario may be that a primary carrier isin a licensed spectrum, a secondary carrier is in the unlicensedspectrum, and the primary carrier is connected with the secondarycarrier through an ideal backhaul.

When the communication system in the embodiments of the disclosure isapplied to the unlicensed spectrum and the network deployment scenariois DC, the DC network deployment scenario may be that the primarycarrier is in the licensed spectrum, the secondary carrier is in theunlicensed spectrum, and the primary carrier is connected with thesecondary carrier through a non-ideal backhaul. A system on the primarycarrier and a system on the secondary carrier may be different systems,for example, the system on the primary carrier is an LTE system, and thesystem on the secondary carrier is an NR system. Or, the system on theprimary carrier and the system on the secondary carrier may also be thesame system, for example, both the systems on the primary carrier andthe secondary carrier are LTE systems or NR systems.

When the communication system in the embodiments of the disclosure isapplied to the unlicensed spectrum and the network deployment scenariois SA, a terminal device may access a network through a system on theunlicensed spectrum.

Various embodiments of the disclosure are described in combination witha network device and a terminal device.

The terminal device may also be called User Equipment (UE), an accessterminal, a user unit, a user station, a mobile radio station, a mobilestation, a remote station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a userterminal, a terminal, a wireless communication device, a user agent, auser device or the like. The terminal device may be a Station (ST) inthe WLAN, and may be a cell phone, a cordless phone, a SessionInitiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a Wireless Local Loop (WLL) station, aPersonal Digital Assistant (PDA), a handheld device with a wirelesscommunication function, a computing device, another processing deviceconnected to a wireless modem, a vehicle device, a wearable device, aterminal device in a next-generation communication system, for example,a future fifth-Generation (5G) network, a terminal device in a futureevolved Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) or the like.

Exemplarily but unlimitedly, in the embodiments of the disclosure, theterminal device may also be a wearable device. The wearable device mayalso be called a wearable intelligent device, which is a generic term ofwearable devices obtained by performing intelligent designing anddevelopment on daily wearing products, for example, glasses, gloves,watches, clothes and shoes. The wearable device is a portable devicedirectly worn or integrated to clothes or accessory of a user. Thewearable device not only is a hardware device but also realizes powerfulfunctions through software support, data interaction and cloudinteraction. Generalized wearable intelligent device includes, forexample, intelligent watches or intelligent glasses with completefunctions and large sizes and capable of realizing all or part offunctions independently of intelligent phones, and for example, varioustypes of intelligent bands and intelligent jewelries of which each isdedicated to application functions of a certain type and required to bematched with other devices such as intelligent phones for use.

The network device may be a device configured to communicate with amobile device, and the network device may be an Access Point (AP) in theWLAN, a Base Transceiver Station (BTS) in the GSM or CDMA, may also be aNodeB (NB) in WCDMA, and may further be an Evolutional Node B (eNB oreNodeB) in LTE, or a relay station or AP, or a vehicle device, awearable device, a network device in the future 5G network, a networkdevice in the future evolved PLMN or the like.

In the embodiments of the disclosure, the network device providesservice for a cell, and the terminal device communicates with thenetwork device through a transmission resource (for example, afrequency-domain resource or a spectrum resource) for the cell. The cellmay be a cell corresponding to the network device (for example, a basestation), and the cell may belong to a macro base station and may alsobe a base station corresponding to a small cell. Here, the small cellmay include: a Metro cell, a Micro cell, a Pico cell, a Femto cell andthe like. These small cells have the characteristics of small coverageand low transmitted power and are applied to provision of high-rate datatransmission service.

In the embodiments of the disclosure, multiple cells may simultaneouslyoperate at the same frequency on a carrier of an LTE system or a 5Gsystem, and in some special scenarios, concepts of carrier and cell mayalso be considered to be equivalent. For example, in a CA scenario, whena secondary carrier is configured for UE, both a carrier index of thesecondary carrier and a Cell Identify (Cell ID) of a secondary celloperating on the secondary carrier may be contained, and under thiscondition, the carrier may be considered to be identical to the cell.For example, access to a carrier and access to a cell are equivalent forUE.

A method and device provided in the embodiments of the disclosure may beapplied to a terminal device or a network device. The terminal device orthe network device includes a hardware layer, an operating system layerrunning in the hardware layer and an application layer running in theoperating system layer. The hardware layer includes hardware such as aCentral Processing Unit (CPU), a Memory Management Unit (MMU) and amemory (also called a main memory). An operating system may be any oneor more computer operating systems implementing service processingthrough processes, for example, a Linux operating system, a Unixoperating system, an Android operating system, an iOS operating systemor a windows operating system. The disclosure layer includes anapplication such as a browser, a contact list, word processing softwareand instant messaging software. Moreover, a specific structure of anexecution entity of the method provided in the embodiments of thedisclosure is not specially limited in the embodiments of the disclosureif a program recording a code for the method provided in the embodimentsof the disclosure may be run to implement communication according to themethod provided in the embodiments of the disclosure. For example, theexecution entity of the method provided in the embodiments of thedisclosure may be the terminal device or the network device, or, afunction module capable of calling the program and executing the programin the terminal device or the network device.

In addition, various aspects or characteristics of the embodiments ofthe disclosure may be implemented into a method, a device or a productprogramed with a standard and/or using an engineering technology. Term“product” used in the disclosure covers a computer program which may beaccessed from any computer-readable device, carrier or medium. Forexample, the computer-readable medium may include, but not limited to: amagnetic storage device (for example, a hard disk, a floppy disk or amagnetic tape), an optical disk (for example, a Compact Disc (CD) and aDigital Versatile Disc (DVD)), a smart card and a flash memory (forexample, an Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EPROM), a card, astick or a key driver). In addition, various storage media described inthe disclosure may represent one or more devices and/or othermachine-readable media configured to store information. Term“machine-readable medium” may include, but not limited to, a wirelesschannel and various other media capable of storing, including and/orbearing instructions and/or data.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system according to anembodiment of the disclosure. As shown in FIG. 1, the communicationsystem 100 includes a network device 110 and a terminal device 120. Thenetwork device 110 may send a downlink physical channel or referencesignal, for example, common DCI or a predefined reference signal, to theterminal device 120 in a beamforming manner. The terminal device 120,after detecting the DCI or the reference signal, may determine astarting position and/or ending position of a present downlinktransmission burst, and may further measure CSI of the downlink physicalchannel sent by the network device according to the starting positionand/or ending position of the present downlink transmission burst, so asto implement normal data communication between the terminal device andthe network device.

Due to serious fading of signals during signal transmission in ahigh-frequency scenario, the network device 110, when sending the DCI orthe reference signal, may process the DCI or the reference signal bybeamforming in at least two directions (for example, beamforming 130 andbeamforming 140) to improve receiving probabilities that the terminaldevice correctly receives the DCI or the reference signal in differentdirections.

It is to be noted that the downlink physical channel in the embodimentsof the disclosure may include a PDCCH, a Physical Downlink SharedChannel (PDSCH), a Physical Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ)Indicator Channel (PHICH), a Physical Multicast Channel (PMCH), aPhysical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) and the like. The reference signal mayinclude a Phase Tracking Reference Signal (PT-RS), a DeModulationReference Signal (DMRS), a Channel State Information-Reference Signal(CSI-RS) and the like. The DMRS is used for demodulation of the downlinkchannel, the CSI-RS is used for measurement on the downlink channel, andthe PT-RS is configured for downlink time-frequency synchronization orphase tracking.

In addition, the communication system 100 may be a PLMN network, or aD2D network, or an M2M network or another network. FIG. 1 is only asimplified schematic diagram listed as an example, and the network mayfurther include another network device which is not presented in FIG. 1.

Frequency-domain resources used for wireless communication in theembodiment of the disclosure will be described below in detail.

In the embodiment of the disclosure, frequency-domain resources forwireless communication (for example, uplink transmission or downlinktransmission) of the network device and the terminal device arefrequency-domain resources used based on a contention mechanism.

For example, the network device and/or the terminal device may detectwhether a frequency-domain resource with a certain bandwidth (forexample, 20 MHz) is presently in an idle state, or whether thefrequency-domain resource is used by another device.

If the frequency-domain resource is in the idle state or thefrequency-domain resource is not used by the other device, the networkdevice and/or the terminal device may use the frequency-domain resourcefor communication, for example, for uplink transmission or downlinktransmission.

If the frequency-domain resource is not in the idle state or thefrequency-domain resource has been used by the other device, the networkdevice and/or the terminal device may not use the frequency-domainresource.

It is to be noted that, in the embodiment of the disclosure, a specificmethod and procedures based on the contention mechanism may be similarto a conventional art and, detailed descriptions thereof are omittedherein for avoiding elaborations.

Exemplarily but unlimitedly, in some embodiments of the disclosure, afrequency-domain resource used by the communication system 100 (or acontention based frequency-domain resource used by the network deviceand the terminal device) may also be a licensed spectrum resource. Thatis, the communication system 100 in the embodiment of the disclosure isa communication system capable of using a licensed band, and moreover,each communication device (the network device and/or the terminaldevice) in the communication system 100 may use a frequency-domainresource of the licensed band in a contention manner.

The “licensed frequency-domain resource” may also be called a “licensedspectrum resource” or a “licensed carrier” and refers to afrequency-domain resource which may be used only after being examinedand approved by the national or local wireless communicationcommissions. Different systems, for example, an LTE system and a WiFisystem, or, systems of different operating companies may not sharelicensed frequency-domain resources.

The licensed spectrum resource may be a dedicated spectrum resourceregulated by the state radio regulating committee, for example, aspectrum resource dedicated to a mobile operating company, civilaviation, railways and polices. Due to exclusiveness of policy, servicequality of the licensed spectrum resource may usually be guaranteed, andit is also relatively easy to implement scheduling control.

Or, in some embodiments of the disclosure, the frequency-domain resourceused by the communication system 100 (or the frequency-domain resourceused by the network device and/or the terminal device based on thecontention mechanism) may be an unlicensed frequency-domain resource.

The “unlicensed frequency-domain resource” may also be called an“unlicensed spectrum resource” or an “unlicensed carrier”, and refers toa resource that may be shared by each communication device on anunlicensed band. Resource sharing on the unlicensed frequency bandrefers to specifying limits to only indexes such as transmitted powerand out-of-band leakage in terms of use of a specific spectrum to ensurethat a basic coexistence requirement of multiple devices sharing thefrequency band is met. An operating company may use unlicensed frequencyband resources to achieve a purpose of network capacity offloading, butis required to comply with regulatory requirements on the unlicensedfrequency band resources in different regions and different spectrums.These requirements are usually made to protect public systems such asradar and to ensure that no detrimental impact and fair coexistenceoccurs between multiple systems as much as possible, and includetransmit power limits, out-of-band leakage index and indoor and outdooruse limits, some additional coexistence strategies in some regions, andthe like. For example, various communication devices may use spectrumresources in a contention manner or a monitoring manner, for example, amanner specified by LBT.

The unlicensed spectrum resource may be a spectrum resource regulated bya government-related department, radio technologies, operatingenterprises and service life are not limited, and meanwhile, servicequality of this band is also not guaranteed. A communication deviceusing the unlicensed spectrum resource may use it for free if therequirements on the indexes such as the transmitted power and theout-of-band leakage are met. Common systems that use unlicensed spectrumresources for communication include a WiFi system and the like.

Exemplarily but unlimitedly, in some embodiments of the disclosure, theunlicensed spectrum resource may include a band nearby 5 Giga Hertz(GHz), a band nearby 2 GHz, a band nearby 3.5 GHz, a band nearby 37 GHzand a band nearby 60 GHz.

Moreover, a concept of transmission burst is introduced into a framestructure of an LTE system in an unlicensed band, namely transmission ofthe network device is opportunistic, data is transmitted only when LBTsucceeds and no data may be transmitted when LBT fails.

In this way, when an NR technology is applied to an unlicensed spectrum,since there is no CRS in an NR system, it is infeasible to detectexistence of a CRS to determine whether there is downlink transmissionof a network device in a subframe.

In view of this, the embodiments of the disclosure provide aninformation transmission method, which enables the terminal device toidentify a time-frequency resource for transmission of a network device,such that normal communication between the network device and theterminal device is performed.

The information transmission method of the embodiments of the disclosurewill be described below in combination with FIG. 2 to FIG. 6. It is tobe noted that a “time-frequency resource” described below may include aresource in a time domain and may also include a resource in a frequencydomain. In the embodiments of the disclosure, a manner for use of theresource in the time domain is mainly involved, and thus a manner foruse of the “time-frequency resource” in the following process ofdescribing the information transmission method of the embodiments of thedisclosure mainly refers to use of the resource in the time domain. Amanner for use of the resource in the frequency domain may be the sameas or similar to the conventional art, and detailed descriptions thereofare omitted herein for avoiding elaborations.

It is to be understood that FIG. 2 to FIG. 6 are schematic flowcharts ofthe information transmission method of the embodiments of the disclosureand show detailed communication steps or operations of the method.However, these steps or operations are only exemplary. Other operationsor modifications of various operations in FIG. 2 to FIG. 6 may also beexecuted in the embodiments of the disclosure.

In addition, various steps in FIG. 2 to FIG. 6 may be executed insequences different from those presented in FIG. 2 to FIG. 6respectively, and not all the operations in FIG. 2 to FIG. 6 may beexecuted.

FIG. 2 is a schematic flowchart of an information transmission method200 according to an embodiment of the disclosure. As shown in FIG. 2,the method 200 may include the following operations.

In S201, a network device determines an available first time-frequencyresource, the first time-frequency resource being a time-frequencyresource in a first downlink transmission burst.

In S202, the network device sends first information to a terminal devicethrough the first time-frequency resource, the first information beingused by the terminal device to determine that the first time-frequencyresource is a downlink time-frequency resource, the first informationbeing further configured to determine an ending position of the firstdownlink transmission burst and the first information being informationobtained by first beamforming processing.

In the embodiment of the disclosure, before signal transmission beingperformed by the network device in an unlicensed spectrum, the networkdevice may performs LBT detection on a carrier in the unlicensedspectrum, the network device obtains a downlink transmission burst afterLBT succeeds, and the network device may perform downlink transmissionin the downlink transmission burst. The downlink transmission burst maybe defined as a time unit continuously transmitted by the networkdevice, and a time unit may be defined as one or more subframes, mayalso be defined as one or more slots or may also be defined as one ormore mini-slots, etc. There are no limits made thereto in the embodimentof the disclosure.

In some embodiments of the disclosure, the first downlink transmissionburst may include one time-frequency resource and may also includemultiple time-frequency resources. The first time-frequency resource maybe a starting time-frequency resource in the first downlink transmissionburst, namely a time-domain position of the first time-frequencyresource is prior to time-domain positions of the other time-frequencyresources in the first downlink transmission burst. The firsttime-frequency resource may also be a middle time-frequency resource inthe first downlink transmission burst, namely other time-frequencyresources may exist prior to the first time-frequency resource in thefirst downlink transmission burst. Or, the first time-frequency resourcemay also be a last time-frequency resource in the first downlinktransmission burst, namely the time-domain position of the firsttime-frequency resource is after the time-domain positions of the othertime-frequency resources in the first downlink transmission burst. Thereare no special limits made thereto in the embodiment of the disclosure.

It is to be understood that, in the embodiment of the disclosure, astarting time unit and/or ending time unit of a downlink transmissionburst may be a complete time unit, for example, a complete subframe,slot or mini-slot, etc., and may also be a part of a time unit, forexample, a part of a subframe, slot or a mini-slot, etc. There are nolimits made thereto in the embodiment of the disclosure.

The network device may send DCI or a reference signal in a part or allof a time unit in a downlink transmission burst, and the terminaldevice, after receiving the DCI or the reference signal, may determinewhether there is downlink transmission of the network device in apresent time unit, namely whether the network device performs downlinktransmission in the present time unit. The DCI may be transmittedthrough a common PDCCH and may also be transmitted through a groupPDCCH. A sequence of the reference signal may be generated according toa cell ID, or the sequence of the reference signal may also bepredefined. There are no limits made thereto in the embodiment of thedisclosure.

In the embodiment of the disclosure, the DCI or the reference signal maycontain indication information, and the indication information may beused by the terminal device to determine that a time-frequency resourcefor transmitting the indication information is a downlink time-frequencyresource, namely the terminal device may determine whether there isdownlink transmission of the network device in the present time unitaccording to the indication information. Furthermore, the indicationinformation may further be used by the terminal device to determine anending position of the present downlink transmission burst, and then theterminal device may determine when the network device stops downlinktransmission according to the ending position of the present downlinktransmission burst, so that normal data communication with the networkdevice may be implemented.

In some embodiments, the indication information is transmitted in acomplete downlink time unit. In some embodiments, the operation that theterminal device may determine whether there is downlink transmission ofthe network device in the present time unit according to the indicationinformation includes that: the terminal device may determine accordingto the indication information that there is downlink transmission of thenetwork device on all time resources comprised in the present time unit.

It is to be noted that, in some optional embodiments, if the networkdevice has no right to use a channel at the start of the time unit, buthas the right to use the channel in middle of the time unit, the networkdevice may still perform downlink transmission in the remaining part ofthe time unit. Or, the network device may perform downlink transmissionin time resources of a first part of a time unit and perform uplinktransmission in the time resources of a second part. Or, the networkdevice may perform uplink transmission in time resources of a first partof a time unit and perform downlink transmission in time resources of asecond part. Under the circumstance that part of time resources in atime unit are used for downlink transmission, the network device maysend, or not send the indication information, and may also send theindication information under some circumstances and not send theindication information under some other circumstances (for example, theindication information is sent when the part of the time unit is a firstpart of the time unit, and the indication information is not sent whenthe part of the time unit is a second part of the time unit). There areno limits made thereto in the disclosure.

In some embodiments, the indication information is transmitted in acomplete or a part of a downlink time unit. In some embodiments, theoperation that the terminal device may determine whether there isdownlink transmission of the network device in the present time unitaccording to the indication information includes that: the terminaldevice may determine, according to the indication information, thatthere is downlink transmission of the network device on all or part oftime resources in the present time unit.

It is to be noted that, if the indication information is transmittedthrough the first time-frequency resource, the indication informationmay correspond to the abovementioned first information. Or, if theindication information is transmitted through a second time-frequencyresource after the first time-frequency resource, the indicationinformation may be recorded as second information. Both the firstinformation and the second information may be used by the terminaldevice to determine the ending position of the first downlinktransmission burst. The ending position determined according to thefirst information and the ending position determined according to thesecond information, of the first downlink transmission burst may be thesame and may also be different. If they are different, it is indicatedthat the ending position of the first downlink transmission burst isupdated, and the terminal device may further perform data communicationwith the network device according to the updated ending position of thefirst downlink transmission burst.

An implementation process of the information transmission methodaccording to the embodiment of the disclosure will be introduced belowin combination with FIG. 3 in detail. At a certain moment, the networkdevice preempts the right to use the channel, namely the LBT succeeds,so that the network device obtains a downlink transmission burst,recorded as the first downlink transmission burst. For example, thefirst downlink transmission burst includes four time units, each ofwhich includes time-frequency resources (for example, the firsttime-frequency resource, the second time-frequency resource, a thirdtime-frequency resource and a fourth time-frequency resource) used fortransmitting the indication information, and the network device maytransmit indication information in each time unit of the first downlinktransmission burst. The time-frequency resources in each time unit maybe predefined (for example, a position of the time-frequency resourcesin the time unit is pre-specified in a communication standard), may alsobe configured by a high layer (for example, configured through RadioResource Control (RRC) signaling or Media Access Control (MAC)signaling), and may also be dynamically indicated (for example,indicated through physical-layer signaling). There are no limits madethereto in the embodiments of the disclosure.

Due to serious fading of signals during signal transmission in ahigh-frequency scenario, the network device may firstly performbeamforming processing on the indication information and then send theindication information, so as to improve the probability that theterminal device correctly receives the indication information. Inaddition, for enabling terminal devices in different directions tocorrectly receive the indication information, the network device mayfurther send the indication information in at least two differentdirections of beamforming. For example, the network device may send theindication information, i.e., the abovementioned first information, onthe first time-frequency resource in a first beamforming direction, sendthe indication information on the second time-frequency resource in asecond beamforming direction, send the indication information on thethird time-frequency resource in a third beamforming direction and sendthe indication information on the fourth time-frequency resource in afourth beamforming direction. At least two beamforming directions of thefirst beamforming, second beamforming, third beamforming or fourthbeamforming are different.

It is to be understood that, in the embodiments of the disclosure, theindication information sent through the first time-frequency resource,the second time-frequency resource, the third time-frequency resource orthe fourth time-frequency resource may be the same or different. Forexample, the indication information sent through differenttime-frequency resources may indicate the same ending position of thefirst downlink transmission burst and may also be configured to indicatedifferent ending positions of the first downlink transmission burst.That is, the first information transmitted through the firsttime-frequency resource and the second information transmitted throughthe second time-frequency resource may indicate the same ending positionand may also indicate different ending positions. There are no limitsmade thereto in the embodiments of the disclosure.

In some embodiments of the disclosure, the indication information isconfigured to determine the ending position of the first downlinktransmission burst. For example, the indication information may beconfigured to indicate a serial number of an ending time unit of thefirst downlink transmission burst. Assuming that the ending time unit ofthe first downlink transmission burst is a slot 4, the indicationinformation may be configured to indicate the slot 4. For anotherexample, the indication information may also be configured to indicatethe number of the remaining time units in the first downlinktransmission burst, i.e., the number of time units that may be used fordownlink transmission starting from the present time unit, so that theterminal device determines the ending position of the first downlinktransmission burst according to the number of the remaining time unitsin the first downlink transmission burst.

For example, as shown in FIG. 3, in a first time unit of the firstdownlink transmission burst, the indication information may indicate 3,namely the indication information (i.e., the first information) receivedon the first time-frequency resource may be configured to indicate 3,which represents that the number of the remaining time units in thefirst downlink transmission burst is 3. If the present time unit is aslot 1, the ending position of the first downlink transmission burst isthe slot 4.

In a second time unit of the first downlink transmission burst, theindication information may indicate 2, namely the indication information(i.e., the second information) received on the second time-frequencyresource may be configured to indicate 2, which represents that thenumber of the remaining time units in the first downlink transmissionburst is 2. If the present time unit is a slot 2, the ending position ofthe first downlink transmission burst is the slot 4.

In a third time unit of the first downlink transmission burst, theindication information may indicate 1, namely the indication information(i.e., third information) received on the third time-frequency resourcemay be configured to indicate 1, which represents that the number of theremaining time units in the first downlink transmission burst is 1. Ifthe present time unit is a slot 3, the ending position of the firstdownlink transmission burst is the slot 4.

In a fourth time unit of the first downlink transmission burst, theindication information may indicate 0, namely the indication information(i.e., fourth information) received on the fourth time-frequencyresource may be configured to indicate 0, which represents that thenumber of the remaining time units in the first downlink transmissionburst is 0. If the present time unit is the slot 4, the present timeunit is the ending position of the first downlink transmission burst.

Therefore, the terminal device may detect the indication information inany time unit in the first downlink transmission burst to determine theending position of the first downlink transmission burst. In someembodiments, if ending positions of the first downlink transmissionburst determined according to indication information in different timeunits are different, the ending position, indicated by the latestindication information, of the first downlink transmission burst isadopted.

In some embodiments, the indication information may further be used todetermine a starting position of the first downlink transmission burst.For example, the indication information (i.e., the first information)received in the first time unit of the first downlink transmission burstmay be configured to indicate 0, the indication information (i.e., thesecond information) received in the second time unit of the firstdownlink transmission burst may be configured to indicate 1, theindication information (i.e., the third information) received in thethird time unit of the first downlink transmission burst may beconfigured to indicate 2, and the indication information (i.e., thefourth information) received in the fourth time unit of the firstdownlink transmission burst may be configured to indicate 3. Therefore,the terminal device may detect the indication information in any timeunit in the first downlink transmission burst to determine the startingposition of the first downlink transmission burst, and thus may furtherperform normal data communication with the network device according tothe starting position of the first downlink transmission burst.

In some embodiments, the indication information may further be used todetermine a position of the time unit where the indication informationis located in the first downlink transmission burst. For example, theindication information may be configured to indicate a position of thetime unit where the indication information is located relative to thefirst time unit, or the last time unit, or the Kth predefined time unitsin the first downlink transmission burst, K being a positive integergreater than 1. After receiving the indication information, the terminaldevice may determine the position of the time unit where the indicationinformation is located in the first downlink transmission burst, thendetermine the starting position and/or ending position of the firstdownlink transmission burst, and perform normal data communication withthe network device according to the starting position and/or endingposition of the first downlink transmission burst.

In some embodiments, the indication information may further contain beamidentification information of beamforming for transmission of theindication information. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, ifidentifications of beams for transmission of the correspondingindication information on the first time-frequency resource, the secondtime-frequency resource, the third time-frequency resource and thefourth time-frequency resource are #0, #2, #4 and #6 respectively, beamidentification information in the indication information (i.e., thefirst information) transmitted in the first time unit of the firstdownlink transmission burst may be #0, beam identification informationin the indication information (i.e., the second information) transmittedin the second time unit of the first downlink transmission burst may be#2, beam identification information in the indication information (i.e.,the third information) transmitted in the third time unit of the firstdownlink transmission burst may be #4, and beam identificationinformation in the indication information (i.e., the fourth information)transmitted in the fourth time unit of the first downlink transmissionburst may be #6.

In the embodiment of the disclosure, the indication informationtransmitted through different time-frequency resources may beinformation obtained by beamforming processing. For example, the firstinformation may be information obtained by first beamforming processing,and the second information may be information obtained by secondbeamforming processing. A beam ID of the first beamforming and a beam IDof the second beamforming may be the same or different. Directions offirst beamforming and second beamforming may be the same or different.There are no limits made thereto in the embodiments of the disclosure.

In some embodiments, the indication information may further containidentification information of a cell where the network device islocated.

In the embodiment of the disclosure, the first beamforming is applied toa first time unit in the first downlink transmission burst; or,

the first beamforming is applied to an mth time unit of P time units inthe first downlink transmission burst, where P represents the number ofthe time units in the first downlink transmission burst, P being apositive integer and m being an odd number; or,

the first beamforming is applied to an nth time unit of the P time unitsin the first downlink transmission burst, where P represents the numberof the time units in the first downlink transmission burst, P being apositive integer and n being an even number; or,

the first beamforming is applied to at least one time unit of first ptime units in the first downlink transmission burst, p=ceil(P/2), whereP represents the number of the time units in the first downlinktransmission burst and ceil( ) representing rounding-up.

That is, the first beamforming may be applied to the first time unit orsome specific time units in the first downlink transmission burst, andthe above positions of the specific time units are not limitations butonly examples. The first beamforming may also be applied to time unitsmeeting other conditions, which will not limited thereto in theembodiments of the disclosure.

In some embodiments, second beamforming is applied to a next time unitto a time unit to which first beamforming is applied; or,

the second beamforming is applied to the mth time unit of the P timeunits in the first downlink transmission burst, where P represents thenumber of the time units in the first downlink transmission burst, Pbeing a positive integer and m being an odd number; or,

the second beamforming is applied to the nth time unit in the P timeunits of the first downlink transmission burst, where P represents thenumber of the time units in the first downlink transmission burst, Pbeing a positive integer and n being an even number; or,

the second beamforming is applied to at least one time unit in last qtime units of the first downlink transmission burst, q=floor(P/2), whereP represents the number of the time units in the first downlinktransmission burst and floor( ) representing rounding-down.

That is, the second beamforming may be applied to the next time unit toa time unit to which the first beamforming is applied, or some specifictime units, and the above positions of the specific time units are notlimitations but only examples. The second beamforming may also beapplied to time units meeting other conditions, which will not limitedthereto in the embodiments of the disclosure.

In the embodiment of the disclosure, for improving the probability ofcorrect reception of the DCI or the reference signal, the network devicemay transmit the indication information in at least two beamformingdirections. How to implement transmission of the indication information,for example in two beamforming directions will be introduced below incombination with FIG. 4 and FIG. 5.

As an embodiment, the first beamforming may be applied to each time unitof the first p time units in the first downlink transmission burst, andthe second beamforming may be applied to each time unit in the last qtime units of the P time units in the first downlink transmission burst,where p=ceil(P/2), q=floor(P/2), P representing the number of the timeunits in the first downlink transmission burst, ceil( ) representingrounding-up and floor( ) representing rounding-down.

For example, in FIG. 4, if P is valued to be 5, p is 3 and q is 2,namely the first beamforming is applied to the first three time units inthe first downlink transmission burst and second beamforming is appliedto the last two time units in the first downlink transmission burst.

As another embodiment, the first beamforming is applied to the mth timeunit of the P time units in the first downlink transmission burst, mbeing an odd number, and the second beamforming is applied to the nthtime unit of the P time units in the first downlink transmission burst,n being an even number.

For example, in FIG. 5, if P is valued to be 5, the first beamforming isapplied to the first, third and fifth time units in the first downlinktransmission burst and the second beamforming is applied to the secondand fourth time units in the first downlink transmission burst.

Therefore, according to the information transmission method of theembodiment of the disclosure, the terminal device, when receiving DCI ora reference signal, may determine a starting position and/or endingposition of a present downlink transmission burst according toindication information in the DCI or the reference signal, and mayperform normal data communication with the network device according tothe starting position and/or ending position of the downlinktransmission burst. In addition, in a scenario of serious fading ofsignals during signal transmission, according to the informationtransmission method in the embodiments of the disclosure, when the DCIor the reference signal is sent, the DCI or the reference signal may beprocessed by beamforming in at least two directions, which is favorablefor improving probabilities that terminal devices in differentdirections correctly receive the DCI or the reference signal.

The information transmission method of the embodiment of the disclosureis described above in combination with FIG. 2 to FIG. 5 in detail fromthe network device side. An information transmission method of anotherembodiment of the disclosure will be described below in combination withFIG. 6 in detail from the terminal device side. It is to be understoodthat descriptions made on a terminal device side correspond todescriptions made on a network device side, where similar descriptionsmay refer to the above and will not be elaborated herein for avoidingrepetitions.

FIG. 6 is a schematic flowchart of a data transmission method 600according to another embodiment of the disclosure. The method 600 may beexecuted by a terminal device in the communication system shown inFIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 6, the method 600 is applied to a communicationsystem including a network device and a terminal device, afrequency-domain resource on a carrier used by the communication systembeing a contention-based frequency-domain resource. The method 600includes the following operations.

In S601, the terminal device receives first information from the networkdevice through a first time-frequency resource, the first time-frequencyresource being a time-frequency resource in a first downlinktransmission burst.

In S602, the terminal device determines that the first time-frequencyresource is a downlink time-frequency resource according to the firstinformation, the first information being further used to determine anending position of the first downlink transmission burst and the firstinformation being information obtained by first beamforming processing.

In the embodiment of the disclosure, since the terminal device initiallydoes not know a time-frequency resource for downlink transmission of thenetwork device, the terminal device acquires the first information in ablind detection manner. The terminal device, after acquiring the firstinformation, may determine the time-frequency resource for downlinktransmission of the network device according to the first information,so as to perform normal data communication with the network device.

In some embodiments, the first information is further used to determineat least one of the following:

a starting position of the first downlink transmission burst, a positionof the first time-frequency resource in the first downlink transmissionburst, the number of remaining time units in the first downlinktransmission burst, an ID of a cell where the network device is locatedor a beam ID obtained by first beamforming.

In some embodiments, the operation that the terminal device receives thefirst information from the network device through the firsttime-frequency resource includes the following operation.

The terminal device receives the first information that is transmittedon the first time-frequency resource by the network device through aPDCCH or through a reference signal.

In some embodiments, the first beamforming is applied to a first timeunit in the first downlink transmission burst; or,

the first beamforming is applied to an mth time unit in P time units ofthe first downlink transmission burst, P representing the number of thetime units in the first downlink transmission burst, P being a positiveinteger and m being an odd number; or,

the first beamforming is applied to a nth time unit of the P time unitsin the first downlink transmission burst, P representing the number ofthe time units in the first downlink transmission burst, P being apositive integer and n being an even number; or,

the first beamforming is applied to at least one time unit of first ptime units in the first downlink transmission burst, p=ceil(P/2), Prepresenting the number of the time units in the first downlinktransmission burst and ceil( ) representing rounding-up.

In some embodiments, the method further includes the followingoperations.

The terminal device receives second information that is sent by thenetwork device through a second time-frequency resource.

The terminal device determines, according to the second information,that the second time-frequency resource is a downlink time-frequencyresource, the second information being further used to determine theending position of the first downlink transmission burst, the secondinformation being information obtained by second beamforming processing,the second time-frequency resource being a time-frequency resource inthe first downlink transmission burst and the second time-frequencyresource being positioned later than the first time-frequency resourcein time.

In some embodiments, the second information is further used to determineat least one of the following:

the starting position of the first downlink transmission burst, aposition of the second time-frequency resource in the first downlinktransmission burst, the number of the remaining time units in the firstdownlink transmission burst, the ID of the cell where the network deviceis located or a beam ID obtained by second beamforming.

In some embodiments, the beam ID obtained by first beamforming isdifferent from the beam ID obtained by second beamforming.

In some embodiments, the second beamforming is applied to a next timeunit of the time unit that first beamforming is applied to; or,

the second beamforming is applied to the mth time unit of the P timeunits in the first downlink transmission burst, P representing thenumber of the time units in the first downlink transmission burst, Pbeing a positive integer and m being an odd number; or,

the second beamforming is applied to the nth time unit of the P timeunits in the first downlink transmission burst, P representing thenumber of the time units in the first downlink transmission burst, Pbeing a positive integer and n being an even number; or,

the second beamforming is applied to at least one time unit of last qtime units in the first downlink transmission burst, q=floor(P/2), Prepresenting the number of the time units in the first downlinktransmission burst and floor( ) representing rounding-down.

In some embodiments, the method 600 further includes the followingoperation.

The terminal device measures CSI of a downlink channel from the networkdevice according to the starting position and/or ending position of thefirst downlink transmission burst.

The method embodiments of the disclosure are described above incombination with FIG. 2 to FIG. 6 in detail and device embodiments ofthe disclosure will be described below in combination with FIG. 7 toFIG. 10 in detail. It is to be understood that the device embodimentscorrespond to the method embodiments and similar descriptions may referto the method embodiments.

FIG. 7 is a schematic block diagram of a network device according to anembodiment of the disclosure. A frequency-domain resource on a carrierused by a communication system to which the network device 700 belongsis a contention based frequency-domain resource. The network device 700in FIG. 7 includes a determination module 710 and a communication module720.

The determination module 710 is configured to determine an availablefirst time-frequency resource, the first time-frequency resource being atime-frequency resource in a first downlink transmission burst.

The communication module 720 is configured to send first information toa terminal device through the first time-frequency resource, the firstinformation being used by the terminal device to determine that thefirst time-frequency resource is a downlink time-frequency resource. Thefirst information is further used to determine an ending position of thefirst downlink transmission burst and the first information isinformation obtained by first beamforming processing.

In some embodiments, the first information is further used to determineat least one of the following:

a starting position of the first downlink transmission burst, a positionof the first time-frequency resource in the first downlink transmissionburst, the number of remaining time units in the first downlinktransmission burst, an ID of a cell where the network device is locatedor a beam ID obtained by first beamforming.

In some embodiments, the communication module 720 is specificallyconfigured to:

send the first information to the terminal device on the firsttime-frequency resource through a PDCCH or a reference signal.

In some embodiments, the first beamforming is applied to a first timeunit in the first downlink transmission burst; or,

the first beamforming is applied to an mth time unit of P time units inthe first downlink transmission burst, P representing the number of thetime units in the first downlink transmission burst, P being a positiveinteger and m being an odd number; or,

the first beamforming is applied to an nth time unit of the P time unitsin the first downlink transmission burst, P representing the number ofthe time units in the first downlink transmission burst, P being apositive integer and n being an even number; or,

the first beamforming is applied to at least one time unit of first ptime units in the first downlink transmission burst, p=ceil(P/2), Prepresenting the number of the time units in the first downlinktransmission burst and ceil( ) representing rounding-up.

In some embodiments, the communication module 720 is further configuredto:

send second information to the terminal device through a secondtime-frequency resource, the second information being used by theterminal device to determine that the second time-frequency resource isa downlink time-frequency resource, the second information being furtherused to determine the ending position of the first downlink transmissionburst, the second information being information obtained by secondbeamforming processing, the second time-frequency resource being atime-frequency resource in the first downlink transmission burst and thesecond time-frequency resource being positioned later than the firsttime-frequency resource in time.

In some embodiments, the second information is further used to determineat least one of the following:

the starting position of the first downlink transmission burst, aposition of the second time-frequency resource in the first downlinktransmission burst, the number of the remaining time units in the firstdownlink transmission burst, the ID of the cell where the network deviceis located or a beam ID corresponding to second beamforming.

In some embodiments, the beam ID obtained by first beamforming isdifferent from the beam ID obtained by second beamforming.

In some embodiments, the second beamforming is applied to a next timeunit to the time unit to which the first beamforming is applied; or,

The second beamforming is applied to the mth time unit of the P timeunits in the first downlink transmission burst, P representing thenumber of the time units in the first downlink transmission burst, Pbeing a positive integer and m being an odd number; or, the secondbeamforming is applied to the nth time unit of the P time units in thefirst downlink transmission burst, P representing the number of the timeunits in the first downlink transmission burst, P being a positiveinteger and n being an even number; or, the second beamforming isapplied to at least one time unit of last q time units in the firstdownlink transmission burst, q=floor(P/2), P representing the number ofthe time units in the first downlink transmission burst and floor( )representing rounding-down.

Specifically, the network device 700 may correspond to (for example, bearranged in or itself is) the network device described in the method200, and each module or unit in the network device 700 is configured toexecute each operation or processing process executed by the networkdevice in the method 200. For avoiding elaborations, detaileddescriptions will be omitted herein.

FIG. 8 is a schematic block diagram of a terminal device according to anembodiment of the disclosure. A frequency-domain resource on a carrierused by a communication system to which the terminal device belongs is acontention based frequency-domain resource. The terminal device 800 inFIG. 8 includes a communication module 810 and a determination module820.

The communication module 810 is configured to receive first informationfrom a network device through a first time-frequency resource, the firsttime-frequency resource being a time-frequency resource in a firstdownlink transmission burst.

The determination module 820 is configured to determine that the firsttime-frequency resource is a downlink time-frequency resource accordingto the first information, the first information being further used todetermine an ending position of the first downlink transmission burstand the first information being information obtained by firstbeamforming processing.

In some embodiments, the first information is further used to determineat least one of the following:

a starting position of the first downlink transmission burst, a positionof the first time-frequency resource in the first downlink transmissionburst, the number of remaining time units in the first downlinktransmission burst, an ID of a cell where the network device is locatedor a beam ID of first beamforming.

In some embodiments, the communication module 810 is specificallyconfigured to: receive the first information that is transmitted on thefirst time-frequency resource by the network device through a PDCCH orthrough a reference signal.

In some embodiments, the first beamforming is applied to a first timeunit in the first downlink transmission burst; or,

the first beamforming is applied to an mth time unit of P time units inthe first downlink transmission burst, P representing the number of thetime units in the first downlink transmission burst, P being a positiveinteger and m being an odd number; or,

the first beamforming is applied to a nth time unit of the P time unitsin the first downlink transmission burst, P representing the number ofthe time units in the first downlink transmission burst, P being apositive integer and n being an even number; or,

the first beamforming is applied to at least one time unit of first ptime units in the first downlink transmission burst, p=ceil(P/2), Prepresenting the number of the time units in the first downlinktransmission burst and ceil( ) representing rounding-up.

In some embodiments, the communication module 810 is further configuredto:

receive second information sent by the network device through a secondtime-frequency resource.

The determination module 820 is further configured to:

determine that the second time-frequency resource is a downlinktime-frequency resource according to the second information, the secondinformation being further used to determine the ending position of thefirst downlink transmission burst, the second information beinginformation obtained by second beamforming processing, the secondtime-frequency resource being a time-frequency resource in the firstdownlink transmission burst and the second time-frequency resource beinglater than the first time-frequency resource in time.

In some embodiments, the second information is further used to determineat least one of the following:

the starting position of the first downlink transmission burst, aposition of the second time-frequency resource in the first downlinktransmission burst, the number of the remaining time units in the firstdownlink transmission burst, the ID of the cell where the network deviceis located or a beam ID of second beamforming.

In some embodiments, the beam ID obtained by the first beamforming isdifferent from the beam ID obtained by the second beamforming.

In some embodiments, the second beamforming is applied to a next timeunit to the time unit to which the first beamforming is applied; or,

the second beamforming is applied to the mth time unit of the P timeunits in the first downlink transmission burst, P representing thenumber of the time units in the first downlink transmission burst, Pbeing a positive integer and m being an odd number; or,

the second beamforming is applied to the nth time unit of the P timeunits in the first downlink transmission burst, P representing thenumber of the time units in the first downlink transmission burst, Pbeing a positive integer and n being an even number; or, the secondbeamforming is applied to at least one time unit of last q time units inthe first downlink transmission burst, q=floor(P/2), P representing thenumber of the time units in the first downlink transmission burst andfloor( ) representing rounding-down.

In some embodiments, the communication module 810 is further configuredto:

measure CSI of a downlink channel from the network device according tothe starting position and/or ending position of the first downlinktransmission burst.

Specifically, the terminal device 800 may correspond to (for example, bearranged in or itself is) the terminal device described in the method600, and moreover, each module or unit in the terminal device 800 isconfigured to execute each operation or processing process executed bythe terminal device in the method 600. For avoiding elaborations,detailed descriptions will be omitted herein.

As shown in FIG. 9, an embodiment of the disclosure also provides anetwork device 900. The network device 900 may be the network device 700in FIG. 7, and may be configured to execute operations of the networkdevice corresponding to the method 200 in FIG. 2. The network device 900includes an input interface 910, an output interface 920, a processor930 and a memory 940. The input interface 910, the output interface 920,the processor 930 and the memory 940 may be connected through a bussystem. The memory 940 is configured to store programs, instructions orcodes. The processor 930 is configured to execute the programs,instructions or codes in the memory 940 to control the input interface910 to receive a signal, control the output interface 920 to send asignal and complete operations in the method embodiments.

It is to be understood that, in the embodiments of the disclosure, theprocessor 930 may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU) and the processor930 may also be another universal processor, a Digital Signal Processor(DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a FieldProgrammable Gate Array (FPGA) or another programmable logic device,discrete gate or transistor logic device and discrete hardware componentand the like. The universal processor may be a microprocessor or theprocessor may also be any conventional processor and the like.

The memory 940 may include a Read-Only Memory (ROM) and a Random AccessMemory (RAM) and provides an instruction and data for the processor 930.A part of the memory 940 may further include a nonvolatile RAM. Forexample, the memory 940 may further store information of a device type.

In an implementation process, each operation of the method may becompleted by an integrated logic circuit of hardware in the processor930 or an instruction in a software form. The operations of the methoddisclosed in combination with the embodiments of the disclosure may bedirectly embodied to be executed and completed by a hardware processoror executed and completed by a combination of hardware and softwaremodules in the processor. The software module may be located in a maturestorage medium in this field such as a RAM, a flash memory, a ROM, aprogrammable ROM or electrically erasable programmable ROM and aregister. The storage medium is located in the memory 940. The processor930 reads information in the memory 940 and completes the operations ofthe method in combination with hardware. Detailed descriptions areomitted herein to avoid repetitions.

In a specific implementation mode, the determination module 710 of thenetwork device 700 in FIG. 7 may be implemented by the processor 930 inFIG. 9, and the communication module 720 of the network device 700 inFIG. 7 may be implemented by the input interface 910 and outputinterface 920 in FIG. 9.

As shown in FIG. 10, an embodiment of the disclosure also provides aterminal device 1000. The terminal device 1000 may be the terminaldevice 800 in FIG. 8, and may be configured to execute operations of theterminal device corresponding to the method 600 in FIG. 6. The terminaldevice 1000 includes an input interface 1010, an output interface 1020,a processor 1030 and a memory 1040. The input interface 1010, the outputinterface 1020, the processor 1030 and the memory 1040 may be connectedthrough a bus system. The memory 1040 is configured to store programs,instructions or codes. The processor 1030 is configured to execute theprograms, instructions or codes in the memory 1040 to control the inputinterface 1010 to receive a signal, control the output interface 1020 tosend a signal and complete operations in the method embodiments.

It is to be understood that, in the embodiments of the disclosure, theprocessor 1030 may be a CPU and the processor 1030 may also be anotheruniversal processor, a DSP, an ASIC, an FPGA or another programmablelogic device, discrete gate or transistor logic device and discretehardware component and the like. The universal processor may be amicroprocessor or the processor may also be any conventional processorand the like.

The memory 1040 may include a ROM and a RAM and provides instructionsand data for the processor 1030. A part of the memory 1040 may furtherinclude a nonvolatile RAM. For example, the memory 1040 may furtherstore information of a device type.

In an implementation process, each content of the method may becompleted by an integrated logic circuit of hardware in the processor1030 or an instruction in a software form. The contents of the methoddisclosed in combination with the embodiments of the disclosure may bedirectly embodied to be executed and completed by a hardware processoror executed and completed by a combination of hardware and softwaremodules in the processor. The software module may be located in a maturestorage medium in this field such as a RAM, a flash memory, a ROM, aprogrammable ROM or electrically erasable programmable ROM and aregister. The storage medium is located in the memory 1040. Theprocessor 1030 reads information in the memory 1040 and completes thecontents of the method in combination with hardware. No more detaileddescriptions will be made herein to avoid repetitions.

In a specific implementation mode, the determination module 820 of theterminal device 800 in FIG. 8 may be implemented by the processor 1030in FIG. 10, and the communication module 810 of the terminal device 800in FIG. 8 may be implemented by the input interface 1010 and outputinterface 1020 in FIG. 10.

An embodiment of the disclosure also discloses a computer-readablestorage medium, which stores one or more programs, the one or moreprograms including instructions and the instructions, when beingexecuted by a portable electronic device including multiple applicationprograms, enables the portable electronic device to execute the methodof the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 to FIG. 6.

An embodiment of the disclosure also discloses a computer program, whichincludes instructions, where the computer program, when being executedby a computer, enables the computer to execute corresponding flows inthe method of the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 to FIG. 6.

Those of ordinary skill in the art may realize that the units andalgorithm steps of each example described in combination with theembodiments disclosed in the disclosure may be implemented by electronichardware or a combination of computer software and the electronichardware. Whether these functions are executed in a hardware or softwaremanner depends on specific applications and design constraints of thetechnical solutions. Professionals may realize the described functionsfor each specific application by use of different methods, but suchrealization shall fall within the scope of the disclosure.

Those skilled in the art may clearly learn about specific workingprocesses of the system, device and unit described above may refer tothe corresponding processes in the method embodiment and will not beelaborated herein for convenient and brief description.

In some embodiments provided by the disclosure, it is to be understoodthat the disclosed system, device and method may be implemented inanother manner. For example, the device embodiment described above isonly schematic, and for example, division of the units is only logicfunction division, and other division manners may be adopted duringpractical implementation. For example, multiple units or components maybe combined or integrated into another system, or some characteristicsmay be neglected or not executed. In addition, coupling or directcoupling or communication connection between each displayed or discussedcomponent may be indirect coupling or communication connection,implemented through some interfaces, of the device or the units, and maybe electrical and mechanical or adopt other forms.

The units described as separate parts may or may not be physicallyseparated, and parts displayed as units may or may not be physicalunits, and namely may be located in the same place, or may also bedistributed to multiple network units. Part or all of the units may beselected to achieve the purpose of the solutions of the embodimentsaccording to a practical requirement.

In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the disclosuremay be integrated into a processing unit, each unit may also physicallyexist independently, and two or more than two units may also beintegrated into a unit.

When being realized in form of software functional unit and sold or usedas an independent product, the function may also be stored in acomputer-readable storage medium. Based on such an understanding, thetechnical solutions of the disclosure substantially or parts makingcontributions to the conventional art or part of the technical solutionsmay be embodied in form of software product, and the computer softwareproduct is stored in a storage medium, including a plurality ofinstructions configured to enable a computer device (which may be apersonal computer, a server, a network device or the like) to executeall or part of the steps of the method in each embodiment of thedisclosure. The storage medium includes: various media capable ofstoring program codes such as a U disk, a mobile hard disk, a ROM, aRAM, a magnetic disk or an optical disk.

The above is only the specific implementation mode of the disclosure andnot intended to limit the scope of protection of the disclosure. Anyvariations or replacements apparent to those skilled in the art withinthe technical scope disclosed by the disclosure shall fall within thescope of protection of the disclosure. Therefore, the scope ofprotection of the disclosure shall be subject to the scope of protectionof the claims.

1. An information transmission method, applied to a communication systemcomprising a network device and a terminal device, wherein afrequency-domain resource on a carrier used by the communication systemis a contention based frequency-domain resource, the method comprising:receiving, by the terminal device, first information from the networkdevice through a first time-frequency resource, wherein the firsttime-frequency resource is a time-frequency resource in a first downlinktransmission burst; and determining, by the terminal device according tothe first information, that the first time-frequency resource is adownlink time-frequency resource.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein thefirst information is obtained by first beamforming and the firstinformation is further used to determine at least one of the following:a starting position of the first downlink transmission burst, an endingposition of the first downlink transmission burst, a position of thefirst time-frequency resource in the first downlink transmission burst,a number of remaining time units in the first downlink transmissionburst, an identity of a cell where the network device is located or abeam identity of the first beamforming.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein receiving, by the terminal device, the first information fromthe network device through the first time-frequency resource comprises:receiving, by the terminal device, the first information that istransmitted on the first time-frequency resource by the network devicethrough a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) or through areference signal.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:determining, by the terminal device according to the first information,whether there is downlink transmission of the network device in thefirst time-frequency resource; or determining, by the terminal deviceaccording to the first information, whether there is downlinktransmission of the network device in the first downlink transmissionburst.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first beamforming isapplied to a first time unit in the first downlink transmission burst;or, the first beamforming is applied to an mth time unit of P time unitsin the first downlink transmission burst, wherein P represents a numberof time units in the first downlink transmission burst, P being apositive integer and m being an odd number; or, the first beamforming isapplied to a nth time unit of the P time units in the first downlinktransmission burst, wherein P represents the number of the time units inthe first downlink transmission burst, P being a positive integer and nbeing an even number; or, the first beamforming is applied to at leastone time unit of first p time units in the first downlink transmissionburst, p=ceil(P/2), wherein P represents the number of the time units inthe first downlink transmission burst and ceil( ) representingrounding-up.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, bythe terminal device, second information that is sent by the networkdevice through a second time-frequency resource; and determining, by theterminal device according to the second information, that the secondtime-frequency resource is a downlink time-frequency resource, whereinthe second information is further used to determine the ending positionof the first downlink transmission burst and the second information isinformation obtained by second beamforming processing, and wherein thesecond time-frequency resource is a time-frequency resource in the firstdownlink transmission burst and the second time-frequency resource islater in time than the first time-frequency resource.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: measuring, by the terminal device, channelstate information (CSI) of a downlink channel from the network deviceaccording to the ending position of the first downlink transmissionburst and a channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS).
 8. Amethod for information transmission, applied to a communication systemcomprising a network device and a terminal device, wherein afrequency-domain resource on a carrier used by the communication systemis a contention based frequency-domain resource, the method comprising:determining, by the network device, an available first time-frequencyresource, the first time-frequency resource being a time-frequencyresource in a first downlink transmission burst; and sending, by thenetwork device, first information to the terminal device through thefirst time-frequency resource, wherein the first information is used bythe terminal device to determine that the first time-frequency resourceis a downlink time-frequency resource.
 9. The method of claim 8, whereinthe first information is obtained by first beamforming and the firstinformation is further used to determine at least one of the following:a starting position of the first downlink transmission burst, an endingposition of the first downlink transmission burst, a position of thefirst time-frequency resource in the first downlink transmission burst,a number of remaining time units in the first downlink transmissionburst, an identity of a cell where the network device is located or abeam identity of the first beamforming.
 10. The method of claim 8,wherein sending, by the network device, the first information to theterminal device through the first time-frequency resource comprises:sending, by the network device, the first information to the terminaldevice on the first time-frequency resource through a physical downlinkcontrol channel (PDCCH) or a reference signal.
 11. A terminal device,wherein a frequency-domain resource on a carrier used by a communicationsystem to which the terminal device belongs is a contention basedfrequency-domain resource, the terminal device comprising: an inputinterface, a processor and a memory for storing instruction executableby the processor, the input interface, the processor and the memorybeing connected through a bus system, wherein the processor isconfigured to: control the input interface to receive first informationfrom a network device through a first time-frequency resource, whereinthe first time-frequency resource is a time-frequency resource in afirst downlink transmission burst; and determine according to the firstinformation that the first time-frequency resource is a downlinktime-frequency resource.
 12. The terminal device of claim 11, whereinthe first information is obtained by first beamforming and the firstinformation is further used to determine at least one of the following:a starting position of the first downlink transmission burst, an endingposition of the first downlink transmission burst, a position of thefirst time-frequency resource in the first downlink transmission burst,a number of remaining time units in the first downlink transmissionburst, an identity of a cell where the network device is located or abeam identity of the first beamforming.
 13. The terminal device of claim11, wherein the processor is configured to control the input interfaceto: receive the first information that is transmitted on the firsttime-frequency resource by the network device through a physicaldownlink control channel (PDCCH) or through a reference signal.
 14. Theterminal device of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to:determine, according to the first information, whether there is downlinktransmission of the network device in the first time-frequency resource;or determine, according to the first information, whether there isdownlink transmission of the network device in the first downlinktransmission burst.
 15. The terminal device of claim 11, wherein thefirst beamforming is applied to a first time unit in the first downlinktransmission burst; or, the first beamforming is applied to an mth timeunit of P time units in the first downlink transmission burst, wherein Prepresents the number of the time units in the first downlinktransmission burst, P being a positive integer and m being an oddnumber; or, the first beamforming is applied to a nth time unit of the Ptime units in the first downlink transmission burst, wherein Prepresents the number of the time units in the first downlinktransmission burst, P being a positive integer and n being an evennumber; or, the first beamforming is applied to at least one time unitof first p time units in the first downlink transmission burst,p=ceil(P/2), wherein P represents the number of the time units in thefirst downlink transmission burst and ceil( ) representing rounding-up.16. The terminal device of claim 11, wherein the processor is configuredto: control the input interface to receive second information from thenetwork device through a second time-frequency resource; and determine,according to the second information, that the second time-frequencyresource is a downlink time-frequency resource, wherein the secondinformation is further used to determine the ending position of thefirst downlink transmission burst, and the second information isinformation obtained by second beamforming, and wherein the secondtime-frequency resource is a time-frequency resource in the firstdownlink transmission burst and the second time-frequency resource islater in time than the first time-frequency resource.
 17. The terminaldevice of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to: measurechannel state information (CSI) of a downlink channel from the networkdevice according to the ending position of the first downlinktransmission burst and a channel state information-reference signal(CSI-RS).
 18. A network device, wherein a frequency-domain resource on acarrier used by a communication system to which the network devicebelongs is a contention based frequency-domain resource, the networkdevice comprising: an output interface, a processor and a memory forstoring instruction executable by the processor, the output interface,the processor and the memory being connected through a bus system,wherein the processor is configured to: determine an available firsttime-frequency resource, the first time-frequency resource being atime-frequency resource in a first downlink transmission burst; andcontrol the output interface to send first information to a terminaldevice through the first time-frequency resource, wherein the firstinformation is used by the terminal device to determine that the firsttime-frequency resource is a downlink time-frequency resource.
 19. Thenetwork device of claim 18, wherein the first information is obtained byfirst beamforming and the first information is further used to determineat least one of the following: a starting position of the first downlinktransmission burst, an ending position of the first downlinktransmission burst, a position of the first time-frequency resource inthe first downlink transmission burst, a number of remaining time unitsin the first downlink transmission burst, an identity of a cell wherethe network device is located or a beam identity of first beamforming.20. The network device of claim 18, wherein the processor is configuredto control the output interface to: send the first information to theterminal device on the first time-frequency resource through a physicaldownlink control channel (PDCCH) or a reference signal.